“One shall live and the other shall die.” The younger sister ran through the fields, happy to live with the father who loved and adored her in the peaceful village under the watchful gaze of the four gods. Her elder twin ran through the mountains, swearing vengeance against the man who abandoned her to the very beasts she was hunting―her own father. When their paths finally cross, the terrible truth of their birth is revealed, and An is left with a difficult decision: follow her twin to the mountains and beyond as she so desperately desires, or condemn her for trying to take her most precious person away…?!

Land Volume 1 is written and drawn by Kazumi Yamashita. English translation by Kevin Gifford. Lettered by Madeleine Jose. Published by Yen Press, September 9th, 2025.

Kevin Cormack
Rating:

Sometimes a manga series comes out of nowhere and grabs you by the heart, causing you to ask, “How could I have never heard of this wonderful thing?” That's the fun part of plowing through book after book for Manga Guide – I get the chance to read so many things I may otherwise have been oblivious to the existence of. In Land's case, that would have been tragic, because this hefty 658-page 3-in-1 omnibus edition is an incredible read I devoured in one sitting.

Tonally, Land reminds me a little of Shin Sekai Yori (From the New World), and the setting is very reminiscent of last year's sleeper hit anime YATAGARASU. We open with a widowed man, whose wife has just died in childbirth, forced to sacrifice one of the twin daughters she left him, due to his culture's traditions. Instructed by a creepy, anonymous, animal mask-wearing shaman, he reluctantly takes the infant, whom he names “An”, and lays her at the feet of the very real and terrifying reaper-like god that stands watch over the village and the entire valley. Leaving the girl to her fate, he returns home and gives his surviving child the same name.

Immediately, the reader is struck by a sense of profound wrongness, as we learn the people of this remote mountain-dwelling civilization are forever bound to a small valley, with four sentinel-like gods perpetually watching them from high vantage points at each point of the compass. Strict laws govern the people's daily lives, from a prohibition on climbing the mountains to see what is beyond, to a strict curfew where the Gods' eyes shine piercing light on nighttime rulebreakers, before whisking them away. Perhaps most unsettling is that every adult must die at the age of fifty, by the gods' decree.

Land's main protagonist is the “An” who wasn't sacrificed. She's a precocious child, always asking uncomfortable questions that poke holes in the village people's belief structures. In an act of misguided atonement, her father deliberately blinded himself, and now he works as a masseuse and acupuncturist for the nobility, rather than working the fields. As rumors of imminent crop failures begin to unsettle the populace, An's family becomes a scapegoat for frustration and blame, not helped by the sudden appearance of a feral child who travels by eagle, determined to kill An's father.

Constrained by an inflexible, cruel society that devolves into mob rule, An is a plucky, engaging protagonist who interacts with a small cast of outcast characters as she gradually peels away at the truth of the world. Her huge, innocent eyes are witness to atrocities and cruelty, yet she remains resolutely determined to do what her heart says is right, traditions and mobs be damned. With the help of some mysterious allies, An drives the plot in intriguing directions, and a few reveals towards the end of this volume hint at fascinating developments in the story to come.

Japanese publication already complete in 11 volumes, Yen Press' decision to compile Land into large omnibuses is a welcome decision, if only because this is a story suited well to digesting in satisfying chunks. It's simple, scratchy pen-and-ink aesthetic excels at conjuring both movement and atmosphere, while its relentlessly propulsive plotting is captivating. I cannot wait until more English-language volumes arrive.

Rebecca Silverman
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Kazumi Yamashita has been creating manga for a long time – she debuted in Margaret during the early 1980s. That's relevant in a couple of ways as pertains to Land: it explains why I thought the art style was so familiar, and more importantly, it shows us that Yamashita absolutely knows what she's doing with this unusual story. The closest comparison I can make is with Moto Hagio's Otherworld Barbara, and believe me, I don't say something is reminiscent of Hagio's work lightly.

Land at first appears to be set in Japan's distant past. In a small village watched over by four gods, twins (or any other multiple birth) are seen as unlucky, and one child must be “sent home” to the gods, who live in The Beyond. When the man in charge of taking these unwanted children to the foot of one of the gods' statues himself has twins, he realizes the cruelty of the practice. Naming both girls An (spelled different in Japanese), he blinds himself in penance. But Mountain An doesn't die – and years later, when she and Village An are around nine, strange things begin to happen. Neither girl is happy with the situations they find themselves in, and while Mountain An simmers with rage, Village An desperately wants to find out the truth of her world…which is nothing like we've been led to believe.

It's neither fantasy nor science fiction, but instead exists in a strange valley between the two genres, like how the village is situated between the four god statues. How much of the characters' ignorance is willful and how much is forced upon them isn't clear, but man's inhumanity to man is on full display, with very few people willing to question the village's leaders. Village An, as well as a young nobleman, aren't complacent; her friend Heita learns to question, albeit slowly. And Mountain An is so steeped in her own anger and what she assumes about her father's actions that she can't see beyond her own rage, which makes her the most dangerous person, at least to herself. Human emotions and willing blindness, symbolized by the twins' father and the inhuman masks village leaders wear, are the true villains…at least, so far.

With clean, sweeping art and a fascinating story, Land is more than worth the price for this omnibus volume. It's not quite like anything else I've read for this guide, and that's what makes it such a good book.